{"id":27770,"date":"2022-09-06T18:47:41","date_gmt":"2022-09-06T22:47:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=27770"},"modified":"2022-09-06T18:51:41","modified_gmt":"2022-09-06T22:51:41","slug":"apache-stronghold-heads-back-to-court-to-protect-sacred-oak-flat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2022\/09\/06\/apache-stronghold-heads-back-to-court-to-protect-sacred-oak-flat\/","title":{"rendered":"Apache Stronghold heads back to court to protect sacred Oak Flat"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Becket Fund for Religious Liberty: Protect Oak Flat<\/a>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n
Apache Stronghold heads back to court to protect sacred Oak Flat<\/div>\r\n
Tuesday, September 6, 2022<\/div>\r\n
By Acee Agoyo<\/div>\r\n
Indianz.Com<\/div>\r\n

<\/P>\r\nThe fight to protect a sacred site from development is once again back in court as defenders of Oak Flat<\/a> seek another shot at stopping a huge copper mine on Apache territory.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nThe Apache Stronghold, a group authorized by the San Carlos Apache Tribe<\/a> to protect Oak Flat, was dealt a setback in June when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals<\/a> refused to stop the controversial project. But as with many contentious issues in Indian law and policy, the ruling in and of itself was not conclusive.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nOne member of the three-judge panel that heard the case in fact concluded that the copper mine would lead to the destruction of Chi\u2019chil Bi\u0142dagoteel<\/em>, as the sacred place is known in the Apache language.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n \u201cOak Flat is the place we have connected with our Creator for millennia, and the generations that follow us deserve to continue this holy tradition,” observed Dr. Wendsler Nosie Sr., a former chairman of the tribe and a leader of the Apache Stronghold.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n \"Wendsler<\/a>

Wendsler Nosie Sr., a former chairman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, takes part in a Save Oak Flat rally at the U.S. Capitol on March 11, 2020. Photo by Indianz.Com (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n

<\/p>\r\n Nosie and the Apache Stronghold are now back before the Ninth Circuit, both legally and physically. Starting last Thursday, the group led a caravan from the San Carlos Apache Reservation in Arizona to the federal courthouse in California, where they are filing a formal request on Tuesday to have their case reheard.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n“We are glad the Ninth Circuit is going to take a closer look at this decision,\r\nand we hope it will do the right thing and protect our most sacred site at Oak Flat,” Nosie said of a journey that started with a blessing ceremony last week.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe panel that heard Apache Stronghold v. United States<\/em><\/a> almost a year ago consisted of Judges Mary H. Murguia, Marsha S. Berzon and Carlos T. Bea. On June 24, Murguia and Bea signed onto a decision in which they sympathized with long-running efforts to protect Oak Flat from development but refused to stop the copper mine from moving forward<\/a>.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n“As we reach this conclusion, we do not rejoice,” the two-judge majority wrote in the decision<\/a>. “Rather, we recognize the deep ties that the Apache have to Oak Flat and to the nearby Apache Leap and Devil\u2019s Canyon.”\r\n

<\/p>\r\nAnd when it came to the underlying issue in the case — whether the transfer of federal forest land to a foreign company will harm the sacred site — the judges weren’t completely convinced either, stating only that “we acknowledge that the land exchange may impact the Apache\u2019s plans to worship on Oak Flat.”\r\n

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